James Holzhauer

I am not sure why I have not written about James Holzhauer. For those of you who are not fans of the television show Jeopardy!, or have just somehow been oblivious to the extensive reporting on this fellow, James Holzhauer had won 33 games of Jeopardy!, earning $2,462,216 (an average of over $74,000 per game), just a bit less than the $2,522,700 earned by Ken Jennings in his 74-game streak in 2004. Had Mr. Holzhauer been able to make it to 74 games at the same rate of earnings during his 33 games, he would have earned over $5.5 million dollars! He also set the record for single day earnings, increasing it from Roger Craig’s $77,000 to the new high at of $131,127. In fact, he now holds the slots for the top sixteen highest scores!

Rank	Score	Player	Type	Date
1	$131,127	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/17/19
2	$130,022	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/27/19
3	$118,816	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/23/19
4	$110,914	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/9/19
5	$106,181	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/16/19
6	$101,682	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/1/19
7	$96,726	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/30/19
8	$90,812	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/22/19
9	$90,812	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/25/19
10	$89,229	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/20/19
11	$89,158	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/12/19
12	$86,905	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/21/19
13	$82,381	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/3/19
14	$80,615	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/2/19
15	$80,006	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/19/19
16	$79,633	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/31/19
17	$77,000	Roger Craig	Regular	9/14/10
18	$75,000	Ken Jennings	Regular	7/23/04
19	$74,400	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/24/19
20	$74,133	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/18/19
21	$73,621	James Holzhauer	Regular	4/24/19
22	$71,885	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/22/19
23	$69,033	James Holzhauer	Regular	5/29/19

These numbers are all fascinating and a bit dizzying, so you may be wondering why I have not been blogging about Mr. Holzhauer over these past nine weeks (nearly 7 weeks of the games he played interrupted by a two-week break for the annual teachers’ tournament). To be honest, I have had mixed feelings about this fellow. Unlike Julia Collins, about whom I wrote a few years ago during her month-long (21 April – 02 June 2014) winning streak on Jeopardy!, he was simply not a very likeable fellow. It was easy to distrust him, to think maybe he was up to something no good. I never thought he had “broken” the game, as many said and wrote, and last night’s game showed this to be the case. The news of his performance in his 34^th game had leaked out (and I am sure if the producers could prove who divulged that information, heads would roll), but even had we not heard that, he clearly seemed off his game. He lost to Emma Boettcher, a 27-year-old librarian from Chicago. She played impressively, with winnings of $46,801 following a very large wager on Final Jeopardy. Even the Jeopardy! host, Alex Trebek, seemed sincerely surprised by the outcome!

James Holzhauer on Jeopardy

The good news here is that Jeopardy! is not broken – it is as popular as ever, so we hope to be watching for many years to come.

Love,

Rebecca